Our history
The story of Hops Connect begins in Pemberton, BC, a small town just north of the world-famous Whistler ski resort. Back in 2013, we began a small growing and processing operation for our proprietary Sasquatch® hop. Throughout our early days, we grew, processed, imported and distributed hops from our farm and cold-storage facility.
In 2016, Hops Connect expanded its operations to Centralia, Ontario, serving the eastern part of the country. We also moved our Western Canada headquarters to Vancouver, eventually settling in “Yeast Van,” the neighbourhood known for its ever-expanding community of celebrated craft brewers.
Since setting up our “home bases” in Western and Eastern Canada, we’ve continued to make long-term investments in our facilities, our people, and (most importantly) in our relationships with the Canadian craft brewing community. We’ve expanded and renovated our cold-storage and warehouse operations, introducing state-of-the-art technology and processes to ensure we can fulfill any order, any time, to anywhere in the country. We’ve built our team to serve our customers better. And we continue to immerse ourselves in the craft community, sharing our knowledge, our expertise, and our insight with everyone who loves craft beer.
Our passion
Absolutely, we’re beer people (and ale people, and stout people, and … you get the idea). But we’re also business people. And for the past decade, it’s been our number one goal to be more than simply a supplier to our customers. We want to be your partners in success.
We do that by offering you exclusive access to the most sought-after, most flavourful hops in the world at reasonable, Canadian prices. By taking the time to visit you in the breweries and taprooms where your craft (and our product) comes alive. By responding to and even anticipating your needs. By sharing our passion for elevating the culture and community of craft—along with our business savvy and entrepreneurial know-how.
Our partnership with you
At the same time, we understand that in today’s hyper-competitive market, craft brewers need more than just passion. They need premium ingredients—including a wide variety of top-quality hops from around the world. A rock-solid supply chain. A partner who supports them through the ups and downs, one who truly “gets” this exciting, challenging business of ours.
And that’s where we come in. We want to be more than just your supplier—we want to be your partner in success. We look forward to meeting with you face-to-face on your brewery floor, to discuss your needs, to exchange ideas, to talk about your expansion plans, or to share a glass of your latest creation.
Our approach
Since our founding, our approach has been simple: find the most experienced, most reliable growing partners around the world. Forge solid, long-lasting, mutually-beneficial partnerships with those growers. Use those partnerships to secure access to the highest quality hops in the world. Bring those hops to Canada and offer them to our Canadian craft brewers at reasonable prices.
We understand the fiery passion and quality that craft brewers bring to their beer. Quite simply, that is our only standard for quality partnerships with the best growers. Traceability, consistency and innovation are at the heart of what we offer, and we remain committed to supplying you with the best hops in the industry while delivering error-free logistics and service.
Make no mistake: we love the craft. But we also love the business of craft. Because we understand what you understand: that the most important ingredient of success isn’t always the kind of thing you find in a brew tank, or a pint glass, or even a warehouse.
You find it right there, in your heart.
